


Taking a Beating

by luminousbluebells



Category: Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020), Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, F/M, Hurt Jack Robinson, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson, Whump, Worried Phryne Fisher
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27920344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luminousbluebells/pseuds/luminousbluebells
Summary: Jack is missing. Phryne is desperate to find him.Very little plot—mostly whump.
Relationships: Phryne Fisher & Jack Robinson, Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

It had been two days.

Forty-eight hours since Phryne had seen him—since _anyone_ had seen him. Hugh had finally made her go home when he found her asleep, face down on Jack’s desk after keeping herself awake for over thirty-five hours. She slept all of an hour and a half in her bed before the images her horrifically imaginative brain had cooked up once again swept away any possibility for peace.

She’d called everyone she could think of, made Hugh do the same. She’d terrified a few young constables who were not thorough enough with their searching. She’d retraced their steps from the case they’d been working, tracked down every suspect and personally questioned each one in hopes that someone knew _something_ helpful. 

Phryne paced through her parlor, eyes on the ground, because every time she looked anywhere else the view plucked a memory of a nightcap, a smile…

She left the parlor.

Unwilling to withdraw to the comfort of her room, and unable to return through the doors from which she’d just come, Phryne sat dejectedly on the stairs. She wracked her brain for something she could do, someone she hadn’t talked to, _anything_ she hadn’t tried… but there was nothing. Just a blank, ominous void of inaction.

 _You might be surprised to learn that sleep is vital for proper brain function, Miss Fisher,_ she imagined Jack admonishing her in the dry, sarcastic tone she knew so well. At that thought, she broke.

The tears had started to fall, but before she even had the opportunity to judge herself for them the shrill ring of the phone jolted her away from her downward spiral. She nearly tripped herself by stepping on the fabric of her trousers as she hurried to answer it.

“Hello?” _Please, God, just let it be him._

“Miss Fisher?” Hugh’s voice responded. Her heart sank, but only a little. Hugh calling her should still be good news.

“Yes, Hugh, what?”

“We… we think we found him, miss. We think we know where he is.”

“Don’t leave without me. I’ll be right there.”


	2. Chapter 2

Jack had definitely had his fair share of head injuries—he was no stranger to bruises or headaches. But this… this was far and away the most pain he’d felt at once since his injury during the war.

His nose was broken, if the blood he’d tasted in his mouth at one point was any indication. His left eye was swollen shut. He was relatively certain there was at least one deep cut somewhere on his face. And with every throb of his pulse, a sharp, stabbing pain flared from the back of his head.

He breathed shallowly, trying to minimize the pain caused by his very bruised ribcage. His strategy, after taking note of what probably amounted to a dislocation and a few broken bones distributed amongst his limbs, became just to move as little as possible. He was never conscious for very long, particularly the first few times he’d woken up and hadn’t learned not to try to move yet, but his sleep was fitful too.

If there was any aspect of his current situation that could be called _lucky,_ the only contender was the fact that so far he had not been disturbed. No one had entered this room—well, it was more of a closet, really—since he’d been thrown into it some unknowable number of hours ago.

Suddenly, the tiny room became a fraction brighter as the door creaked open. His stomach dropped, but the panic wasn’t strong enough to compel him to move. Better to brace himself than cause himself more pain.

But the moment that followed was too quiet to mean any immediate danger. He relaxed and thought he must have imagined it, but then a blur of dark hair and pale skin entered his limited field of vision.

“Oh, Jack,” she whispered, kneeling down beside him. A delicate ungloved hand brushed gently through his hair. 

_Phryne._ Suddenly, moving seemed worth it. He strained to reach one hand up to grip tightly at her elbow.

“Phryne,” he tried to reply, but his voice was gravelly and only some of the letters made sound when they left his mouth.

“Shh, it’s all right. Hugh and your other men are here, they’ve got the situation under control,” she said quietly. 

“Miss Fisher?” Hugh’s voice called from the distance.

“In here, Hugh!” Phryne yelled back. Jack winced at the volume. After a brief moment, her hands grazed lightly over his shoulder, then dropped again as if she’d reconsidered.

He wished she hadn't. Her touch was all the proof he had that he wasn't dreaming.


	3. Chapter 3

The sight Jack made on the floor of that tiny closet made Phryne’s heart stop for a moment. The blinking of his uninjured eye and the almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest indicated that he was, in fact, still alive, but the image of his body broken and bruised and bloodied was truly something out of her nightmares.

Her practical battlefield nurse instincts battled with her selfish desire to just hold him in her arms and comfort him (and herself, if she was honest). The latter won at first, and she kneeled at his side and reached up to touch his unruly curls.

“Oh, Jack.” 

This wasn’t the kind of vulnerability she’d hoped she’d see from him one day. Her heart squeezed as he raised a hand to clasp tightly at her elbow as if it were his lifeline and tried to rasp a response.

“Shh, it’s all right. Hugh and your other men are here, they’ve got the situation under control,” Phryne whispered.

“Miss Fisher?” Hugh called from outside.

“In here, Hugh!” she replied. A small noise of discomfort at the volume of her voice from Jack made her once again very aware of the degree of his injuries, and her eyes flitted over his body to see if there was anything she could solve herself right now.

His shoulder was visibly dislocated. She reached to start putting it back in place before remembering the great amount of pain he already appeared to be in and deciding it would be best to wait until he could be given something for the significant additional pain that relocating the shoulder would contribute. 

At that moment, Hugh appeared in the doorway. His eyes widened and he froze with his mouth hanging open in shock when he spotted the Inspector. 

“Hugh, call for an ambulance at once, please,” Phryne said in as calm a voice as possible. “And request that Dr. Mac attend as well.”

Hugh nodded jerkily and ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I know about first aid I learned from Grey's Anatomy and a wilderness first aid class I took a few years ago, so lmk if I have gotten anything massively wrong!!


End file.
